Windows Vista facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Windows Vista
Part of the Microsoft Windows family
Developer
Microsoft Corporation
Releases
Initial release	January 30, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-01-30) [info]
Stable release	6.0 (Build 6002: Service Pack 2) (April 28, 2009; 14 years ago (2009-04-28)) [info]
Source model	Closed source / Shared source
License	Proprietary commercial software
Kernel type	Hybrid
Update method	Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, SCCM
Platform support	IA-32 and x86-64
Preceded by	Windows XP
Succeeded by	Windows 7
Support status
Mainstream support: Ended on April 10, 2012. Extended support: Ended on April 11, 2017.
Further reading
Development of Windows Vista Features new to Windows Vista Management features new to Windows Vista Security and safety features new to Windows Vista Technical features new to Windows Vista Windows Vista I/O technologies Windows Vista networking technologies Features removed from Windows Vista Windows Vista editions

Windows Vista is the 6th version of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Microsoft. While it was being made, it was called Longhorn. On July 28, 2005, Microsoft gave out its real name, which was Windows Vista. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows Vista on April 11, 2017.

Microsoft had worked on Vista for more than five years, so it came with many new features, such as improved graphics, new built-in programs, and stronger defenses against computer viruses. However, Vista introduced many changes to the way the operating system worked, which caused some older programs to stop working.

Vista editions and system requirements

Vista was released in November 2006 for computer makers and January 30, 2007 for home users. The four main editions of Windows Vista are:

• Home Basic Edition
• Home Premium Edition
• Business Edition
• Ultimate Edition

There are 2 special versions called Starter Edition, and Enterprise Edition. Starter is basically the same as XP Starter, and is for low budget countries. Enterprise Edition is for big companies that need computers that have good performance. Vista needs at least 512 MB of RAM to run on all computers. Some new parts of Vista need 1 GB of RAM to work and for better performance

For stability and performance, more than 1 Gigabyte of main memory (RAM) is always helpful with a large operating system such as this.

Service Packs

Microsoft releases service packs to update software and fix problems.

Service Pack 1

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released on February 4, 2008 alongside Windows Server 2008 to OEM partners, after a five-month beta test period. The first use of the service pack caused a number of machines to continually reboot, making them unusable. This caused Microsoft to temporarily stop release of the service pack until the problem was resolved. The same release date of the two operating systems showed the merging of the workstation and server kernels back into a single code base for the first time since Windows 2000. MSDN subscribers were able to download SP1 on February 15, 2008. SP1 became available to current Windows Vista users on Windows Update and the Download Center on March 18, 2008. Initially, the service pack only supported 5 languages - English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. Support for the remaining 31 languages was released on April 14, 2008.

Service Pack 2

Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista was released to manufacturing on April 28, 2009, and released to Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update on May 26, 2009. In addition to security and other fixes, a number of new features were added. However, it did not include Internet Explorer 8.

Microsoft

Reviews and screenshots

Images for kids

• 

  Desktop screenshot of Microsoft Windows Code Name Longhorn build 6.0.4074 (Milestone 7), showing Start menu, early version of Windows Desktop Sidebar, My Computer window, and Slate visual style theme

• 

  A comparison of the four visual styles included in Windows Vista

See also

In Spanish: Windows Vista para niños